Lebanese photographer Ziad Antar uses photography and video in work where the artist’s quiet and reflective stance reveals the social and political structures that influence daily life.

Sharjah Art Foundation presents a solo exhibition of new work by Lebanese photographer Ziad Antar that features photographs of the UAE coastline that were taken between 2004 and 2011. This exhibition is curated by Christine Macel, Chief Curator at Musée National D’Art Moderne Centre Pompidou Paris.

While Antar began by randomly photographing the coast, he later worked to systematically document the coastline, Emirate by Emirate, completing the series as part of a Sharjah Art Foundation Residency in 2011. The resulting photographs portray the borders between each Emirate and the sea as a place of contact and engagement with the outside world. The work reveals traces of history drawn on the landscape as well as the recent past of these young countries that have been built upon trade and commerce.

Viewed in succession, these photographs tell the story of an economic boom and its hazards through images of both monumental architectural structures and the abandoned worksites of unfinished construction projects, as well as through the daily lives and activities of the middle classes.

This exhibition consists of 211 black and white and coloured photographs. Installed along walls that wrap around the centre of the exhibition space, the photographs will be hung in a single line that is fractured and segmented, reflecting the physical geography of the United Arab Emirates.

Publication

Antar’s publication Portrait of a Territory will be launched during the exhibition opening reception. Created as part of his Sharjah Art Foundation Artist Residency, this book includes 267 photographs, some from the exhibition in addition to others from the same series.  Co-published by Actes Sud and Sharjah Art Foundation in French, English and Arabic, this 304 page book was edited by Marc Touitou with a text written by Christine Macel.

About the Artist: Ziad Antar

Antar has been working with photography and video since 2002 when he directed his first documentary on the French photographer Jean-Luc Moulène. He has made several documentaries for the Arabic news channel al-Arabiya.  Antar’s work has been shown in numerous exhibitions including The Mediterranean Approach and The Future of a Promise, Venice, Italy (2011), Sharjah Biennial 10 (2011), the New Museum, New York (2009), the Cittadellarte, Pistoletto Foundation, Biella, Italy (2009), Sharjah Biennial (2009), Tate Modern, London (2008), the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2006) La Cabane, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2005) and the Taipei Biennial, Taiwan (2008). He was nominated for the Ukrainian Pinchuk Foundation's Future Generation Prize in 2010. Ziad Antar was born in 1978 in Saida, Lebanon and now lives and works between Paris and Beirut.

About the Curator: Christine Macel

This exhibition is curated by Christine Macel, Chief Curator at Musée National D’Art Moderne Centre Pompidou Paris since 2000. She is currently working on a solo exhibition of Anri Sala scheduled for May 2 – August 6, 2012 and a group exhibition with Navid Nuur The image in the Sculpture opening in 2013. Her recently curated exhibitions include Philippe Parreno, Gabriel Orozco, The Promises of the Past and Dance your Life. As an art critic she writes for Artforum, Flash Art, ArtPress and has been the editor of many catalogues. In 2008 she published an essay on contemporary art Time Taken the work of time in the work of art (Monografik/Centre Pompidou).